The scenes of the morning had given a new turn to our thoughts
and a direction to our energies. We now beheld before us a field not
only of action and honorable employment but a patbway to fame. We
breakfasted in good spirits and afterwards went each to our respective
shops; for we decided to keep perfectly secret our plans until they
were fully matured. We, therefore, assumed extraordinary diligence
in business during the day in order the more fully to disguise our purposes.
Our shop was all day crowded. More soda was drank that
day on the score of the fight than had been on any previous day, not
excepting that on which we opened the establishment. The battle was
the only theme of conversation among all visitors, among whom were
naval officers from the French, English and American vessels of war
in the harbor. During the day we were honored also with the presence
of the commander of the castle, and several of his officers who had
taken part in its defence. One of them was wounded and had his arm
in a sling.

They talked valiantly of their exploits upon the walls. From the
conversation of several parties I got the facts of the affair. It appeared
that General Llavelleja had, the night before, secretly marched
from his camp at the head of a detachment of about two thousand of
his cavalry, for the purpose of surprising the castle. His force

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proceeded without discovery to the base of the Mount, about five miles
distant from his camp, where he separated them into three divisions.
One of them, consisting of five hundred dismounted cavalry, silently
marched around the hill and took a position, in ambush, directly under
the walls at the rear of the castle. The second detachment of seven
hundred men was sent to a ravine at the foot of the hill, where it dismounted,
leaving their horses tethered, and there formed in column,
ready for the signal of onset. The third and main body remained in
saddles at the base of the hill, directly in front of the main entrance to
the castle and about five hundred yards distant, the ascent to the gate
from their post being gradual, the hill being in shape not unlike an
ant hill, the castle crowning the whole.

The motive for this disposition of his forces was the fact Llavelleja
knew that every morning at dawn, the main gate of the castle was
thrown open for the soldiers to go down to a spring a hundred yards
from it to get water to cook with. Upon the opening of the gate, therefore,
the detachment in ambuscade were to rush forward and surprise
it and thus get admission into the castle, which would then have fallen
easily into their hands.

Having made this disposition of his forces under cover of the darkness,
he awaited until the dawn for the gate to be opened. When at
length the day began to break, he, in person, drew so near to the gate
that, it was said, he heard the turning of the bolts as it was unlocked.
The moment the gate was opened and the soldiers with their buckets
began to come forth, he wound his bugle and dashed at the entrance
with the whole of the ambush at his back.

So sudden was the onset and surprise that he fairly gained the entrance,
cutting to pieces about a score of the soldiers which had come
out and wounding and slaying several that opposed under the portcullis.
The garrison, however, met him with courage, and the officer in
command had presence of mind enough to drop the portcullis in the
very midst of the melee, cutting in two several of the combatants of
both parties that were fighting beneath it.

Finding the gate thus closed, the patriot general gave a general
order for storming the citadel. Now opened the cannonading upon
the advancing cavalry of the main body which had awakened the sleeping
city from its repose, and me among the number. The failure of
this bold attempt I have already stated.

The British and American officers whom I heard discussing the affair,
called it a gallant thing, though some of them were disposed to
censure the Patriot general for not waiting for his artillery before he
planned such an expedition; while others ridiculed the idea of employing
cavalry to storm a fortress. But others urged that as all his
army were cavalry, it was in character; and besides, the cavalry drawn
up at the foot of the hill could be made available in protecting the infantry,
should a sortie of the whole garrison be made and drive it
back.

All the forenoon barrows laden with wounded soldiers from the
castle passed the shop on the way to the hospital. The enthusiasm,
however, of the citizens was not damped by these sights, sufficiently

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familiar to their observation. There was a general joy throughout the
town. Men spoke of it as a great victory; and in the afternoon salutes
were fired, flags displayed, and other marks of victorious triumph
manifested. In the evening the Governor-General, who had witnessed
the battle from the cupola of the palace, gave a ball, and fire-works
were let off in the Grande Square. Exultation was on every Brazilian
visage. It was said that the detachment of fifteen hundred men which
had been sent across the harbor, would be the next day increased by
four thousand more, and an attack would be made upon the patriot
camp. All was excitement and warlike enthusiasm.

Our Consult, it was said, asked the Governor General why a sufficient
force was not sent over at the time to follow the retreating patriots and
press them into their camp, cutting them to pieces in the confusion
of their discomfiture. His reply was that he apprehended that the attack
was only a ruse to draw his attention and the flower of his troops
in that direction, while the remaining four thousand cavalry surprised
one of the city gates and endeavored to carry the town.

The Brazilian General's opinion of the courage of the patriots was
flattering to them, to say the least, that he should suppose four thousand
men would be able to take a city garrisoned with seventeen thousand!
surrounded by a wall thirty feet high, which was defended by
a moat as many feet deep and sixty feet wide, filled from the harbor
with water, which flowed all around the city like a circular river; the
gates double, protected by drawbridges and portcullis, by a strong
guard and cannon frowning above them! But the truth is, the Brazilians
stood much in fear of their brave foes, and attributed to them
prowess in arm worthy of the heroes of ancient Greece or the Scythian
warriors, whom, indeed, they not a little resembled.

Llavelleja was sustained only by his six thousand Ranchero cavalry
in his siege. The Buenos Ayrean Government had no fleet, save a
few gun boats, two or three schooners and a corvette of twenty guns
which had once been a New York merchant ship, but which the Patriot
Government purchased and converted into a vessel of war. This
vessel was the flag ship of the little squadron which was under the
command of Admiral Brown, once an English officer, but for many
years in the service of Buenos Ayres; a brave, daring man, a finished
seaman, and a thorough fighting sailor. This squadron was at this
time blockaded in Buenos Ayres by the Brazilian fleet which I have
already spoken of as stretching from shore to shore about fifteen miles
from Montevideo. The siege of Montevideo was therefore incomplete,
and would have been had Llavelleja's force been fifty thousand men;
for so long as the harbor was open to the Brazilian vessels the place
could not be starved out. But what the patriot wanted in means was
supplied by invinsible courage, energy, and love of country. They
had the sympathy of all the Americans and French in the port, and of
most of the English, who, however, could not so entirely overcome
their prejudices against republics as to extend to them hearty and cordial
wishes for success.

The character of the patriots and the patriot general inspired us
with the strongest interest; and I was filled with the greatest desire to

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see him. The analogy between the Republic and our own enlisted
our national pride. We had been told that she had adopted our constitution
almost literally, and that her form of government was modelled
after our own. We knew that her people were brave, and were
combatting on the side of justice and right. Our resolution, therefore,
to take part with them was confirmed the more we reflected upon it.
There we were, thrown upon the world, as it were, by an act of duplicity
on the part of one who should have been our protector and
friend. We had the world all before us where to choose. It was
either ignobly to return home, if we could get a passage, or carve out
our fortunes with our own hands. The war closed all avenues of
business but selling soda-water, which seemed to flourish under it, and
the army and navy of the patriots seemed to invite us. They needed
every arm that would volunteer in their cause. The idea of fighting
in the patriot cause thrilled our youthful bosoms! There was a charm,
a fascination in the very word! We might also rise rapidly to fame—
our country might yet hear of us with pride!

Our determination was taken. We that night got together, and
after talking the whole matter over with a gravity becoming a Napoleonic
council, we made up our minds to take the first opportunity to
join the Patriot force outside of the city. We were divided in choice
of the service however. Fairfax and myself were inclined, after reporting
ourselves to Llavelleja, to proceed to Buenos Ayres and join
the squadron under the gallant Brown; for we both had a fancy for the
sea. Radsworth, whose father was a general officer in the last war,
and Hewitt, preferred the military service. Fairfax and I were not
disposed, be it understood, to get out of fighting distance by joining
the squadron in the port of Buenos Ayres. We expected to fight, and
wished to. A report was in town that Brown was then preparing to
sail down the river with his little squadron, to break the blockade and
open the river, at least temporarily, to the vessels waiting below to
come up. We hoped to reach him in time to take part in the affair.

Thus having settled matters for the future, it only remained for us
to embrace some opportunity for quitting the city. This was likely
to be a difficult object to bring about. The only outlets from the place
were by the gates towards the country, which were triply guarded, or
by the mole on the harbor side.

The next morning after the battle, the old man came into the shop,
and said he was going on board an American ship which had just come
in, to hear what news there was from the States.

`Now young men,' he said, speaking through his beaked nose and
looking very authoritative, `I shall be gone just two hours to a minute.
You know my punctuality. I expect you to remain in the shop.—
Don't leave it Perril, on your peril, as you did yesterday. If I maintain
you I shall expect you to give me every minute of your time.—
Now see that I am obeyed. My son Edwin goes with me. Have you
seen William?'

`I have not since yesterday,' I answered.

`The dog! He will yet get his head taken off or be put in prison.
He is always adventuring about. I don't know but I shall have to try

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and get him a place in Ford & Co's House? He is getting unsteady
and wild!'

Well might the old gentleman say so. His son was as wayward and
independent as the wind. He was a handsome, reckless, fiery young
man, with an utter contempt for his father, and a merciless quizzer of
his literary brother, Edwin. He was a good fellow at heart, but a perfect
devil when he was roused. He refused to do anything, but dressed
elegantly and passed his time in cafes, or flirting with such young
Spanish girls as his impudence aided him to get acquainted with.—
Once in a while he would lounge into the shop and chat awhile, take a
glass of soda-brandy, smoke two or three cigars and then disappear.—
He was, however, on excellent terms with us; and well knew that we
did not intend to remain with his father any longer than we could help
ourselves; for finding him friendly we had told him. He kept our secret,
and said frankly, that he did not blame us; `for the old man had
fairly taken us in.' He added, too, that he was surprised after he had
seen more of us on board the brig, that such a set of young men as he
found us to be, should have consented to go out to Buenos Ayres, to
tend soda-shops! But when we, as a few days after our arrival we
did do, explained to him in confidence the deception, (which he warmly
professed his ignorance of before) he expressed his indignation and
said that we should but serve the old man right to quit him at once,
and let him find others to tend shop as he could. We did not, however,
fully let him into our secret purposes.